And yet, but changes are happening. I just realized 10 minutes ago exactly how reflexive using wikipedia to look up an any unknown term I run across has become. In 5 years, the ability to do this on a mobile unit just as easily and swiftly as I do this on my laptop will be very widespread. Now consider the social effects of a generation of children raised with cellphones and even more with gps phones with maps. Never being out of contact and never being lost. We're likely less than 20 years away from getting or being lost being something that is even more archaic than being out of communications contact is now. Things are changing rapidly. Also, I absolutely have no idea what a wearable/portable unit that allows easy constant internet access, but I'm certain that we'll have an answer in a decade.

What's it going to be like when most members of the first world middle class can fact-check (within the limits of easily accessible on-line data, which in itself presents some fascinating issues) any bit of data they see or hear in 10-15 seconds (I just timed a quick wikipedia search of a term).